Mechanus
The Clockwork Nirvana of Mechanus is one of the infinite planes of existence. It is true lawful-aligned and full of gears which operate with extreme regularity. Like you'd expect from a whole lot of gears. Features Mechanus is an enormous machine with a single purpose. No one knows what its purpose is, but they are nevertheless sure it has one. It is the natural plane of Formians. It is ruled by the Celestial Bureaucracy located in the Jade Clock, a giant timekeeping area of the machinery. There is a giant central cog which is a single gear 3,000 miles across; more Formians live there. It also contains Regulus, the city of constructs, operated by Regulus, the god of constructs. Relevant to Ethan's interests are the Axiomatic Dragons, construct dragons which combine the qualities of dragons and Warforged, and can seriously mess you up. Mechanus contains the Great Library, a receptacle of all knowledge. The emphasis is on organization rather than completion, and the library focuses on history and literature. It is probably very difficult to gain access to the Great Library. During the war between Discordians and Harmonians, a large section of Mechanus was destroyed, but the constructs successfully rebuilt it. Mechanus currently suffers from a severe chicken infestation. (See below.) In Eon Ashra has theorized that when Baudin Dommilan ragequit the Prime Material Plane in favor of "a long dark hallway with tapestries" he ended up on the hallway to the Mother Brain room in Mechanus. She further theorizes that the Mothers copied his form to give it to Evil Baudin, wiped part of his memory, and eventually released him. However, none of this has been confirmed, and Baudin himself likely has had his memories of it removed if it did happen. While the rest of the party went looking for supplies before venturing into the Ruins of Eldergrin, Kruglor, Fauxdin, and Fab Dick went on a joyride to Mechanus using Kruglor's Dimension Die. They brought chickens there and left them, in the hopes of generally spreading chaos. Kruglor later encountered these same chickens when he traveled there during his duel with Ulfgar for championship of a drow village. He nearly had his hand broken by a gear, but avoided it, and took one of the chickens with him, later roasting it on the Elemental Plane of Fire. A pattern of infinite interlocking gears, likely indicating Mechanus, has appeared repeatedly: *Once in The Dark Tower as one of thirteen tapestries *Once in The Nautilus in a tapestry associated with Xenteroth *Once in a tapestry of Olidamarra in the Ruins of Eldergrin when Ashra looked at the back in a Mirror of True Seeing *Once hanging from the ruined temple of Corellon Larethian in Bisau, with "The path and gate to the Clockwork Nirvana" written in Axiomatic below it *In all the tapestries along the hallway leading from the matrix puzzle to the Mother Brain room. Ashra decided that this plane is relevant to her interests. She would come to regret that a little. The party ended up on Mechanus after solving a puzzle in the ruined temple of Corellon Larethian in Bisau. They evaded and destroyed the outer defenses, reaching a manufacturing chamber, where Xoth attacked Ashra, then retreated. They chased him through the storage matrix, through a portal the color of infinity into a long, dark corridor flanked with gear tapestries. From there they were brought to a chamber with all five of the illithids who had been on the Prime, as well as five Mother Brains. This was revealed to be a trap by High Regent Xenteroth, who killed Zaphodel, Prince Avimeus, and Aether before the surviving party members destroyed his physical form. Ashra heard his mother's voice several times immediately before the fight. Unlike the generic illusionary Mother Brains, she was immediately recognizable to Ashra, but it is not clear whether the Mother Brain of Baldur is actually imprisoned on Mechanus or whether this was another trick of Xenteroth's. The party found several imprisoned Inquisitors, as well as the Prince Avimeus, chained in a small sunken room. In a nearby chamber the party found undead illithid tadpoles, implying that these prisoners were meant to be ceremorphized into some sort of undead semi-illithid monstrosities. The Hand of Vecna led the party back onto the Prime. Grax, Xoth, and Xenteroth are preparing an army of Warforged on Mechanus for unknown ends. This army is self-replicating and was designed on a pocket plane by Icania Vandril, who has since changed to the party's side. It is unclear whether the party's interference materially affected these plans; signs point to no, however, as they destroyed only a few soldiers and were shuffled off the plane fairly quickly. Grax and Xoth still appear as off-plane, and are likely still on Mechanus. A Defender of Mechanus snuck on board the Swiftest Thought to spy on the party and see if they had the Binder's Candle and/or were Binders themselves. Once convinced that they didn't and weren't, she ceased to consider them enemies and flew away in peace. Category:Locations Category:Planes